What things have you believed about yourself, your circumstances, and God?

Here’s your spoonful of courage for today:

I’m Dr. Chuck. I want to look again at John chapter 9 verses 1 through 5, where Jesus leaving the temple, encounters a blind man.

In previous discussions, I mentioned how Jesus saw the situation in a different set of lenses. Jesus saw the blind man’s predicament as an opportunity to perform the works of God. He didn’t, in contrast to his disciples, point fingers and play the blame and shame game.

Let’s look at this from the viewpoint of the blind man who was in close proximity to the conversation between Jesus and his disciples. What impact did Jesus’ words have on him? We don’t know the background of the man, we do know he was begging and born blind. Perhaps I’m speculating a little but I wonder how many times the man had been told that he or someone he loved was responsible for his blindness, or maybe the people around him were like the disciples, shaming him or his parents, or something which was beyond their control. I wonder what modern day self helpers would have told the man in a situation, “suck it up buttercup. Believe in yourself and you’ll find a way, but maybe take responsibility and control of your destiny.”

I believe the words of Jesus had a dramatic impact on how the blind man thought about himself. How refreshing to hear that he wasn’t at fault for his particular circumstances, that it wasn’t his personal sin per se, but part of living in a broken sinful world. And maybe just maybe, God had a plan for his life challenges.

Jesus’ words were enough to encourage him to do what Jesus told him to do, to stumble out of Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam, which was outside of the city gates.

Now I don’t know what you’ve been told about yourself, your challenges, or even God. Most of us adopt the mindset of the disciples, we shame ourselves and we blame others. One sense is true, we have met the enemy, and the enemy is ourselves. A lot of our predicaments are our own doing, we all make wrong choices and we don’t measure up to God’s holy standard, but Jesus offers us grace and opportunity to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Often we are spiritually blind and see God as a God of judgment pointing fingers at us. And, although it’s true our sin separates us and condemns us, Jesus offers us a way to step out of that condemnation, see God and live with a different set of lenses.

I want to encourage you to dig deep into the promises of God, Jesus has a lot to say about you. Open up your Bible and listen to the masters’ words, Jesus can do for you what you can’t do for yourself. Take him on his word and by faith, do what he encourages you to do, and when you do your eyes will be open.

I’m Dr. Chuck, the best guy to see on the worst day of your life. In the description below,  there’s a link to a download for a free Bible study about this passage.